Little immigration talk at GOP event

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The goal of a conference of Hispanic Republicans here was to show that the party wants to broaden its reach into the fastest-growing population of voters.

It did just as much to underscore the GOP’s challenge.

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The Republicans who gathered at the posh Biltmore Hotel for the newly formed Hispanic Leadership Network generally support a broad reform of the immigration system, one that includes some means for legalizing the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants. The organizers included former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez – two leading Republican voices for a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

But they are not part of the dominant wing in the Republican Party, which has embraced an enforcement-first, no-legalization-under-any-circumstances position in recent years – a shift that the conference organizers say has hampered the party’s outreach to Hispanics.

Yet there was little direct challenge to the party’s rightward drift on immigration.

None of the organizers – Bush, Gutierrez and former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) – made a direct mention of immigration in their opening remarks. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty relegated the issue to the end of a more than 20-minute speech.

A bold-faced lineup of Republican officials – former President George W. Bush, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Jon Kyl, Newt Gingrich – addressed the conference through video statements. But none discussed immigration. Instead, they focused on their support of limited government, small business, and family values.

The conference wasn’t silent on the question of immigration, and included a panel focused on party’s approach to immigration reform and one on messaging to the Hispanic community, which included talk of how the party would address the topic.

But when immigration was addressed directly, the speakers were divided on whether the party’s struggle to draw more Hispanic voters was one of tone or substance.

“We do have a challenge on the Hispanic vote,” said Alex Castellanos, a Republican political consultant who spoke to the gathering about the party’s messaging strategy. “The problem is not a product problem; it is a language problem, a tonal problem.”

Independent columnist Ruben Navarette, speaking on the same panel, disagreed: “If you think it’s about tone, you have missed the point.”

One of the bluntest warnings came from former Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), who said “respect has to be the No. 1 priority.”

“The decibels have to be lower,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how good our policy positions are, if we are perceived as being anti-immigrant, we cannot be the majority party.”

The broader focus of the conference reflected the organizers’ philosophy: that Hispanics are not just interested in immigration, but jobs, trade, education and social values.

Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, said the conservative approach on each of those issues lines up well with Hispanics. But the party also cannot ignore immigration, he said.

“The big hurdle is clearly immigration,” said Aguilar, who attended the conference. “It is more than a tone issue. It is a tone and a policy issue. It is not enough to say let’s not talk about immigration, let’s be nice, let’s play nice.”